The Ice Admiral

New Intentions 23

*Warning* This chapter can be disturbing to some individuals; read with caution.

About five days passed after Eden's plan started. Every night Eden escaped through the slit she made in the tent and explored the camp. She was searching for the cave where Phoenix and Bo were located. 

Eden explored the camp every night, crossing off areas that did not have what she was looking for. The camp was vast, stretching long throughout the dark forest. Throughout her searches, Eden did not find any more wolfsbane tents or extraction areas. 

The third night, after ruining all the wolfsbane, she found a tent with food provisions. Having to pretend to be asleep doesn't prevent her from feeling hungry. She was lucky that her stomach never growled when the doctor visited her. 

She took enough food to snack on and stored the rest in a covered corner of her tent. The food's scent was hidden with some secret ingredient because it had no scent. 

It was a brilliant idea. Even the scent of cooked food could lore the enemy, so finding a way to cover the scent was ingenious. 

This invention helped them, but also Eden; she could eat the food without having any scent related to it on her. Having some food in her stomach allowed Eden to gather more strength. So, during the day, she could act, and at night, she could search. 

Eden found the food the day after she found the wolfsbane flowers, but she had been pretending to be unconscious for days already. Eden woke up after five days of being unconscious, and during that time, she had to maintain her act, but hunger was challenging for her to fight.

***

The sixth day after Eden's plan was implemented, she waited until Greg left the tent. Once he was gone Eden peaked her eyes open. 

'It's still too early to leave.' The sun was starting to go down, but it had to be dark before Eden started searching again. 

Eden was waiting patiently but like the day before a visitor came to her tent. 

"Good to see you again." The heavy footsteps immediately made Eden recognize who had entered. Alaric hadn't shown up since the first time he tried to wake her up, and she was lucky because his son Riven came in, shortening his visiting time. 

This time, Eden felt that she wasn't going to be so lucky. 

Alaric walked up to Eden but did not touch her nor kneel down. She could hear him grumbling, but he did not utter a word. Eden was careful with her breaths as he continued to stand near her. 

Every moment he stood next to her felt like an eternity. "Are you going to open your eyes or pretend to sleep forever?" Eden's heart felt like it dropped completely as he uttered that sentence but did not move. 

She stayed motionless, and lucky she did as the man spoke again, "No reaction, damn it." Then, he lowered himself to shake Eden, "Wake the hell up! I am getting impatient for you to regain consciousness." 

Alaric continued to shake Eden for a minute but stopped. Although he stopped shaking her, he increased his grip on Eden's arm. 

The grip on her arm made Eden want to pull away because it started to feel painful. He held that grip for a while before letting go and standing back up. 

"I thought you were strong, but it seems I was wrong." The man grumbled as he walked away from Eden and left the tent. Eden waited a long time before attempting to open her eyes. With Alaric involved, she did not want to take any chances. 

Once she felt like it was safe to open her eyes, Eden looked and saw darkness. It was completely dark outside, and from Eden's hearing, no one was walking towards her tent. Eden took the opportunity to free herself from the ropes with the scalpel.